Step 2: Cleaning the outside.

Step 3: Cleaning the inside.

Don your dust mask. Don't be tempted to skip this step, and don't try to improvise by using a bandana instead. The particulate matter is too fine to b...

Hardshell gourds have been used as food and beverage containers, and art pieces for centuries. They are often referred to as "nature's pottery" due to their beautiful variety of shapes and hardy uses. The creative crafting possibilities of hardshell gourds are endless; from bowls and cups (mate gourds, used for drinking yerba mate), to purses, jewelry, Christmas ornaments, lampshades, jewelry boxes, bird houses, tribal penis shields, and even a wide variety of musical instruments. The list goes on forever, only limited by your imagination.

But I'm not here right now to tell you what to do with them (maybe later); I'm here to tell you how to clean them inside and out, using safety precautions.

The need to clean depends largely on what you plan to do with the gourd. You may decide to only work on the outside without a need to open the gourd, in which case you get to avoid the extra work involved. If you plan to make a bowl, for example, then clearly you'll be working on both inside and outside, as well as cutting and/or carving.

The outsides of dried gourds are fairly simple to clean, if sometimes labor intensive. The extent to which you clean them depends upon how you want to use them, and what you might want to add to the surface (paints, dyes, etc.). If you want a naturey-looking gourd with its natural waxy coating you don't have to do much beyond washing off dirt and dark mold with a hot water and bleach solution (maybe 10 parts water to 1 part bleach), which retards future mold growth. However, if you want to dye a gourd, leaving the waxy coating on it might prevent dye from soaking into the surface the way you want it to, which means you'll have to scrub harder to remove nature's irritating addition to your innocent craft project.

The insides of gourds are a different story, and a potentially dangerous one. You need to be careful not to inhale the contents. Not all hardshell gourds are terrible inside, but they are all dusty, and you can't guess which ones will merely make you sneeze and which ones might contain mold/fungus, bacteria, and other pathogens that could cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock. I've personally been flattened with a gourd dust-related illness that gourd crafters refer to as "gourd flu", which was basically illness that mimicked semi-severe flu symptoms (fever, aching joints, muscle soreness, mucus, fatigue) for about two to three days. If there's a medical term for this, I don't know what it is, but in hindsight... I probably should have seen a doctor. And you should, too, if it ever happens to you.

So... to prepare, make sure you use a dust mask. They're easily found at hardware stores all over. Choose a good one designed for working with wood/sawdust; if possible, look into one that also protects against molds/fungus. Second, use protective goggles. Remember, these precautions aren't just for gourds; any time you do craftwork involving dust, solvents, tools and so on.

What can you expect to find when you open a gourd (via Xacto knives/saws, mini electric jigsaws, or Dremels... be careful not to cut yourself)? Dust, seeds, a styrofoam-like substance, and hardened pulp, maybe even a few tiny beetles. You probably don't want to keep that junk in there, right? So you have to clean it out, and often this is easy, but occasionally this can get ugly.

You should prepare yourself for cleaning the outside with:~ A sink or tub, the size depending on the size(s) of gourds you're cleaning.~ Rags~ Copper scrubbing pads. 100% copper means they won't rust should you want to use them again later.~ Bleach~ Old towel(s)~ Something to scrape with, perhaps a knife edge ~ Rubber dish gloves

You should prepare yourself for cleaning the inside with:~ Gardening gloves, or thicker gloves~ A melon baller~ A taxidermy scraper~ A sanding sponge~ A shop vac~ Dust masks, the best ones being for the finest particulate matter~ Eye protection, especially if you plan on using power tools~ Electric drill with wire brush bit for spots that are hard to reach

Please don't ignore the safety precautions, especially regarding sawdust. If you use a high-powered cutting tool (Dremel, etc), you'll be generating a lot... a LOT... of sawdust from the gourd, and it is very, very fine. The faster the tool, the more dust you'll create. Many gourd artists opt for mini-jigsaws with variable speeds, to control the cutting and minimize dust. In addition to dust masks and goggles, you should work in a well-ventilated area.

I have grown birdhouse and luffa gourds for years. I've got more birdhouse gourds this year than I've ever had.

Never heard of gourd flu and never wore a mask while cleaning them.

I had a HUGE one this year that started to rot at the neck while it was drying. So today I pulled off the neck, cut it off at the shoulders to make a bowl. It is still green. It was very juicy as I cut it and I assume that's why the neck began to rot - too much tissue to dry out before it started to rot.

Anyway. I scraped most of the wet "meat" from the inside and now have it upside down in a 170 degree oven. It is sitting on a few beer bottles to keep its weight off of the edges. HAS ANYONE EVER DONE THIS BEFORE? LOL. I mean dry them in an oven. Obviously I won't have any "mold wars" going on. Is it just going to cook or will it dry. Should I remove the "meat" right down to the green shell? Yikes! I bet I just ruined a gorgeous, giant birdhouse gourd.

Your method works pretty well for cleaning gourds. I tried it with about a dozen, soaking them in an ice chest. A couple of weeks later I found a stray gourd that didn't get cleaned. Looking for a quick, easy way to achieve your results, I just rinsed it in the kitchen sink with warm water. Then I sprayed it with a Lysol w/bleach product that I had on hand, and gave it a scrub with some steel wool.

Worked very well, with a minimum of mess and without the longer soaking time I used before. Next time I'll try this with all my gourds.

Hey, I don't have first hand experience with this, but if you want to have a neck like mine, you can take little rocks and just shake it all around for a while. I'm not sure what kind of results this produces, but the one I have, which was made by my grandfather using this method, is really really nice and I love the neck!

Depending on how smooth the cut needs to be, and how tough/thick the gourd is, you can use anything from an Xacto knife to a hack saw. I typically make a starter cut with an Xacto blade, then finish with a mini jigsaw (try eBay). The mini jigsaw is nifty in that it can make some pretty intricate cuts, so you can do some nice artwork with it in addition to just using it to open a shell.

Gourd flu! Who knew! I'm so glad I read this before attempting to clean mine! I grew some ladle gourds last year. They are finicky to grow. They don't like it too hot. A heat spell during the bloom wiped out all but 3 of our gourds last year. We found a cooler spot in the garden for this year's crop. Fingers crossed! Great info! Thanks!

I have a gourd like the one in the picture. Mine is slightly more orangeish. It was my grandpa's. My family is from China. My grandpa got it from his grandpa :O. The way it was cleaned out was the cut a tiny bit off the top (Like an inch down in the picture example) then filled it with water and rocks. Then they shook it around A LOT until everything came loose and fell out. When it was 100% cleaned out, they filled it with wine and drunk till they was happy! :D So, I guess this is a separate way to clean it out, however, it's probably less safe. Wouldn't skimp out on the mask etc when doing this.

Wow, featured and rated, great pictures and lots of great safety tips... I've always wanted to know where to find myself some gourds, as far as I can tell they're not native to anywhere in the UK... I'll have to try some places, I always thought there was huge amounts of treatment involved in making the shells hard but I can think of some great projects for them. By the way to help sort out the insides of gourds and smooth them out, as long as there isn't foamy stuff you could take a shot at putting a handful of small pebbles in and shaking vigorously, it might be a good way to dislodge the particulate inside then vacuum out safely. Also a small funnel shape added around the base of a mini jigsaw and attached to a vacuum cleaner will almost eliminate the spread of dust. Granted from what you've said about it, it might be best vented outside as some filters are quite poor.

Thank you very much :) Unfortunately, the climate in the UK is just not suitable for this crop, but I know you can find gourds easily on eBay if you don't mind the postage. Pebbles don't get the toughest stuff out, as it's pretty stuck on, but they do indeed get the looser stuff fairly well. And you're absolutely right about it being best to filter the vacuumings outdoors. I think I like the vacuum attachment idea. It'd have to be very light, as to keep the mini saw precise.